


And I'm Okay

by Tamoline



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game), Love is Strange - Fandom
Genre: F/F, Gen, Max managed to get all bad endings in the VN equivalent, Not that she didn't undoubtedly have help from certain quarters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-09
Updated: 2016-05-23
Packaged: 2018-06-01 05:11:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6502006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tamoline/pseuds/Tamoline
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The last year at Blackwell managed to detonate in a flurry of messed up potential relationships. Now it's ten years later, and Victoria is organising the reunion with a mix of nervousness and anticipation.</p><p>Surely everyone involved is ready to move past their old shit, right?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I did originally have relationships in mind when I started writing this, but *certain* characters decided to start having their own views on things. So I guess I'll have to see what they end up deciding to do with the rest of you.

“Oh. You,” Victoria said as she answered the door, glowering as she recognised the miscreant that had washed up on her doorstep. “What are *you* doing here?”

Chloe cheerfully grinned at her. “Where else am I going to stay for the big ten year Blackwell reunion?” she said as she pushed past Victoria to dump her bulging bag on the couch.

“You do realise I have a spare room now. With a bed even,” Victoria said sourly.

“Yeah, but why change a tradition?” Chloe asked.

“So I only have to wash some sheets as opposed to having my couch shampooed afterwards?” Victoria asked rhetorically.

Chloe just smirked at her.

“Homeless tramp,” Victoria muttered.

“Uptight bitch,” Chloe returned.

“Anyway, *some* of us have responsibilities. Like making sure everything is sorted out for tonight.” Victoria paused, sneering back at Chloe, who had fished inside her bag and retrieved a laptop, the only new looking thing of Chloe’s that Victoria had ever seen. “Have you somehow managed to avoid losing that house key of mine you filched? Haven’t deleted the wifi password?”

“Check and check,” Chloe said, already typing on her laptop, before looking up at Victoria briefly. “Don’t worry your pretty little head. I’ll be fine until R-hour.”

Victoria rolled her eyes and collected her things. “Just because some of us aren’t mannerless animals,” she said sweetly before closing the door on whatever reply Chloe was doubtless slinging at her.

Well that was at least one of the alumni that hadn’t bothered replying who had at least a fairish chance of turning up tonight. One that she might not totally hate making an appearance.

If only she could say the same for all of the rest.

* * * * *

“What do you mean, one of your servers has come down with a bug and you don’t have a replacement?” Victoria tried for icy disdain but internally winced a little as her voice cracked in frustration. This wasn’t even the first problem she’d run up against this afternoon. Despite having repeatedly chased all the suppliers up over the last few weeks, two had somehow managed to lose their way to the school and one was still missing in action.

This was simply the last thing she needed.

The man in front of her shrugged, smiling oafishly. “Can’t have her around food or drink when she’s like this and no one else is available to cover. What can you do?”

And this was why she hated Arcadia Bay, despite - or possibly because - she lived locally. Because if there was only one company locally capable of handling her needs, what, indeed, was she going to do?

“Fine,” she bit off. “But I do hope you’re expecting a suitably reduced fee.”

He hesitated a bit before nodding, but whatever he was going to say was cut off by the ringing of her phone. Probably for the good of her blood pressure and his continued good health. With any luck, it’d be her last supplier.

It wasn’t.

“Nathan?” she asked as she answered the phone, voice falling solicitously, waving the man off as she walked away to get some quiet.

“Hey, Vicky,” he said, overly bright, overly bold in that way of his that practically screamed his mood to the world. To anyone who really listened.

To her, at least.

She knew what was coming even before he continued, practically mouthed the words as he said, “I’m sorry. I don’t think I’m going to make it tonight.”

“That’s alright,” she said softly. Her stomach couldn’t help falling slightly, despite her words. 

It would have been nice to have him here, supporting each other even as they fell apart.

Just like the old days.

“It’s just… I’m in a good place at the moment.” He laughed, a little jaggedly. “Or at least an okay one. But being around all our classmates again, remembering what it was like back then… It just feels like a step backwards, you know?”

“I understand,” she said, and she did. Even if it felt like sometimes she had to step backwards before she could go forwards again. “You’ve got to look after yourself first.” She paused, feeling like she had to say something more. “I’ll try and fly out to you sometime soon, so we can catch up properly, okay?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, that sounds good.” He even sounded like he meant it.

“Take care,” she said and rang off, before focussing her attention again on the unfortunate man in front of her. “Now, how are you planning to make sure that there aren’t going to be any further problems with the service…”

* * * * *

“What a surprise to see you here,” Brooke sniped as she stopped by the table to pick up her ID. “I’m shocked that you didn’t get one of your former minions to do it for you.”

Victoria pushed down her initial response, pressing her lips together in what she hoped passed for a smile. It wasn’t as though she didn’t have it coming, she supposed. But that didn’t make it any easier to swallow. “Brooke,” she said. “You’re looking good.”

It wasn’t… completely a lie, even if it wasn’t exactly completely true either. Brooke certainly exuded enough confidence in her own skin. She looked at Victoria skeptically for a moment before shrugging. “Whatever,” she said and took her ID from the table - the picture the best one Victoria could find from her stack of photos from back in the day - and wandered off, flipping it between her fingers.

Well, that could have gone better, Victoria thought. Though it could also have gone worse, she supposed. And she had never thought that this would be easy.

She couldn’t help tensing as she saw the next person approaching the table.

“Kate,” is what she could manage by way of greeting.

If Brooke had seemed confident in her own skin, Kate seemed to practically own the room, even with curls of hair escaping their arrangement. She was already looking past the table, smiling a greeting towards someone already there. Her expression dimmed as she looked towards Victoria.

“Victoria,” she said neutrally. “You’re looking well.”

Victoria’s throat closed up. What could she say? “I…” she started, then noticed Juliet walking up behind Kate. “Can I catch up with you later?”

Kate tilted her head, studying her for a moment before her smile became a bit more genuine. “Well, I’ll be here all evening, if you want to find me.”

Her phone went. It was her mother. Victoria ignored it as Kate disappeared into the room. The last thing she needed right now was another dose of parental disappointment.

She smiled perfunctorily at Juliet, made the appropriate small talk - teacher in Seattle - then Trevor - sales clerk, Olympia - then Logan - plumber, Lincoln City. She’d just finishing very carefully not mentioning how much weight Logan had put on in the last ten years, when she caught sight of an angular figure in an immaculate suit out of the corner of her eye. It took for a moment for their identity to register.

“Chloe?” she said, choking a little.

Chloe smirked at her. “What? I did tell you I’d be coming.”

Victoria managed to bring her expression under control. “And just because you say you’ll be somewhere I’m supposed to expect that you’ll turn up now?” she asked, finding refuge in sarcasm. “Let alone turning up in something like that,” she said, gesturing at the suit. “I wasn’t aware that you even owned anything apart from moth eaten t-shirts and ratty jeans.”

If anything, Chloe’s smirk widened. “Carry it off well, don’t I?”

Victoria refused to give an honest reply to that because the answer was *yes*, dammit. Victoria had never denied - to herself - that from the time Chloe had come back into her life, she had possessed a crude animal appeal. But she’d never really thought of her as hot.

Until now.

*Dammit.*

“You wear it like you’re a chimp in one of those old adverts,” was what she actually said, of course.

“I’m hurt, Chase. Mortally wounded here.” Chloe paused a moment. “Has, y’know, anyone arrived?” she asked, eyes skidding away from Victoria’s, her tone lacking its usual swagger, halfway between hopeful and nervous.

Victoria didn’t have to ask who ‘anyone’ was. The very people who Victoria would like to see least. The success stories of their class. The people who Chloe had very specifically never brought up since they’d reconnected. “No,” she said.

Chloe’s face shuttered. “Yeah? Thought as much. I guess I’ll just be over here livening the place up. Feel free to join me when you get tired of being stuck behind that table. If you think you can handle the pace.”

Victoria rolled her eyes epically at her. “You really think I can’t handle anything your stoner ass can’t throw at me? Now, go,” she said, waving a hand peremptorily in her direction. “I have former classmates who actually finished their time here arriving.”

Chloe gave her a sarcastic little wave before heading off into the crowd. Victoria dealt with the new attendees whilst casting occasional glances towards Chloe, because *damn* that suit was unfair. She was distracted enough that her first warning of the latest arrival was a slightly awkward “Hey.”

Victoria spun around to see Max slouching awkwardly in front of the table, hand half raised in greeting.

Oh. Great.

“I’m surprised you found time to come back in between jetting around the world,” she snapped then closed her mouth with an effort. It wasn’t Max’s fault that things between them had gone that wrong during their last year at Blackwell. 

Completely.

It wasn’t completely Max’s fault. After all, Victoria had been such a bitch, a slut, a cow, an all round shit back then - could Max really be blamed when she hadn’t realised that Victoria had been genuinely reaching out after the shitshow that had been Chloe and Rachel fucking off for parts unknown, on far from the best of terms.

Hadn’t been completely Max’s fault that she’d completely fucked what Victoria had actually tentatively hoped might be-

And then, just to add insult to injury, she’d actually managed to achieve their mutual dream of becoming a successful, verging on famous, photographer, whilst all Victoria had managed was washing up here.

But it wasn’t Max’s fault. Not really. And it had been ten years since they’d seen each other. Plastering something that probably resembled a smile upon her lips, she said, “I’m sorry. Let me try that again. It’s a pleasure to see you again. Here, have your ID, though I imagine you’ll hardly need it.”

Max took the proffered badge, rubbing the back of her head with her other hand whilst she smiled uncomfortably at Victoria. “It’s nice to see you too. Look, I know it’s probably way past late to do this, but I really want to apologise for how I treated you back then. I was just so messed up back then, that I…” she shrugged. “I couldn’t believe in myself, let alone that anyone might actually want me.”

She was so awkward, so blunt that Victoria couldn’t help but believe her. And who hadn’t been fucked up back then? Certainly not her. She felt a knot of anger that she hadn’t even realised that she was still carrying start to dissolve.

Fuck it. What was the point of worrying about it still? She sharpened her smile to something bitchy, something the old Victoria might have worn, and covered her mouth in faux shock. “Max? Apologising to me? Aren’t you going to take a selfie to commemorate the moment?”

Max looked at her blankly for a moment before starting to snort. “You- I-“ She started laughing properly, almost bending over in half and - for a moment - Victoria was reminded of why she’d been attracted to her way back when. She could be so dorkily open in a way that Victoria could never have even imagined being. When she straightened, she was far more relaxed than she’d been when Victoria had first caught sight of her.

“Thanks,” she said. “I needed that.” Victoria rolled her eyes. As if *that* hadn’t been obvious. “Sadly,” she continued, “I seem to have left my camera in my other suit.”

“As if that rumpled mess could really be called a suit,” Victoria said. Honestly. It looked like Max had been sleeping in it. She smirked at her. “But if you’re that hard up, I do have a camera back here.”

“Seriously?” Max quirked an eyebrow.

“For old times sake. Not to mention the ‘honour’ of having a genuine selfie apology from the great Max Caulfield gracing my camera.” She handed it over. “And,” she added before she lost her courage, “I’m sorry that I was,” such a bitch, a cow, a shit, “the kind of person back then who you wouldn’t think was being genuine in that way.”

Max flashed her a genuine smile before mocking an exaggerated look of contrition for camera. A click and a flash later, she handed the camera back.

“Now,” Victoria said. “As much as I’m sure your dorky conversation skills could no doubt enrapture me for the rest of the night, doubtless there are other people you’d like to catch up with as well.” She looked significantly in the direction of Chloe. 

She was fairly certain that Chloe’d kill her if she didn’t.

Max followed her eyes and flushed. “Maybe, ah, I’ll work up to that one,” she said, but wandered off into the room regardless.

She kept an eye on them in between dealing with late arrivals. It took about five minutes or so, but Chloe clearly telegraphed the moment when she spotted that Max had entered the room. And yet neither of them actually approached the other, just each just sending a series of ridiculous little glances towards the other. She wasn’t exactly sure what had happened in the run-up to Chloe fucking off, but they both needed to get the hell over themselves and deal with it. If she had to go over there and drag one over to the other, she swore that she was never going to let Chloe live it down.

She was in fact in the middle of getting up to do just that - it was late enough that anyone who hadn’t arrived yet could quite frankly fuck themselves - when one last arrival walked into view.

Rachel Amber.

For a moment Victoria felt like she couldn’t breathe, until the adrenaline hit her like a kick to the head. Fight. Flight. *Something.*

She knew what she would have chosen when she was younger, what she *had* chosen repeatedly.

But she was better now. Older. More in control of things.

She was.

After one breath, two, three, four, she even started to believe it herself. Hadn’t said anything, of course, or even let her expression change, but wasn’t that a victory in and of itself?

It was ten years later, and there was no way she was still bound up in all the old bullshit.

“Victoria,” Rachel said when she finally reached the table after what seemed like a lifetime. Victoria could almost feel her eyes travelling over her body, half making her want to rip them out with her fingernails, half… another reaction entirely.

But she was past this. She was.

“Rachel,” she managed. “Surprised to see you here.” Especially because Victoria had somehow ‘lost’ her invitation rather than sending it out.

“Mmmm,” Rachel said, gaze dropping to the table, eyes running over whose badges were still there… and whose weren’t. Victoria made no effort to move - wasn’t entirely sure that she could - as she reached across the table to pick up her badge. As she turned to look into the room contemplatively, Victoria felt like a great pressure had been lifted from her.

Fucking Rachel Amber. Of course *she* had to turn up, like a bad penny, a horrific nightmare, looking like an idle dream.

Then Rachel looked back at her. Victoria only just managed to stop herself from stiffening again.

“Before I forget,” she said, opening up her handbag, flicking through it to finally withdraw an envelope with Victoria’s name written on it. “I wanted to give you this.”

Victoria numbly took the proffered envelope, opened it up to reveal… money.

“What-?” she started, unable to even start to follow where this was coming from.

“It’s what I owe you,” Rachel said, quietly, intensely. “And a bit more besides.”

And, finally, *there* was the anger. “You think this changes *anything*?” Victoria hissed. “If I’d wanted money from you, I’d have cashed the cheques you sent me. Repeatedly.” It was almost like an out of body experience, listening to her mouth move without her volition. “I don’t want your slutastic money you got from whoring your body out to the public.” It was like eighteen-year-old Victoria had possessed her body all over again.

Rachel’s face was a mask. If Victoria’s words meant anything - anything at all - to her, it didn’t show. “Then do whatever you want with it. As long as you take it, as long as — as far as I’m concerned — things are square between us, I really don’t give a damn.”

It was the total lack of engagement that finally snapped Victoria out of it. All of a sudden, she couldn’t wait to be somewhere else - anywhere else. “Fine,” she bit out, hands crumpling the envelope like it was Rachel’s neck. “I hope you enjoy your evening,” she said in the most utterly poisonous tone she could manage, before she stormed off to get some air.

*Fucking* Rachel Amber.


	2. Chapter 2

The chill of the night air serves to slowly cool Victoria’s blood. 

So much for her big plans to kind of, sort of apologise to her old classmates for being such a prize bitch during the Blackwell years. Not that she was sure that she’d be able to force the words past her teeth even now. But planning this, organising it and spending some time being pleasant…

She’d hoped…

She’d hoped.

Fucking Rachel Amber.

She caught movement out of the corner of her eye, turned to see Chloe propping herself up on the wall next to her.

“I’m fine,” she snapped. “I certainly don’t need any looking after by *you*.”

Chloe gave her a half smirk. “I don’t know - I was a little worried you couldn’t last without me,” Chloe replied before she slipped a cigarette between her lips, lit it and took a long drag. Victoria’s ire subsided as she spotted the way that Chloe’s hands shook slightly.

Victoria hesitated for a moment, half wondering if she should reach out or something… but that has never been the kind of relationship Chloe and her had had. She contented herself with a, “You wish, Price,” and then, “Spare a smoke?”

Chloe eyed her a moment, then slid a cigarette out of her pack and passed it to her along with her lighter. “Thought you’d given ‘that vile habit’ up.”

Victoria sneered at her, before lighting the cigarette, coughing as she drew smoke into her lungs. If there was ever a night to relapse into old, bad habits…

“So…?” she asked, tossing the lighter back to Chloe.

Chloe spared her a glance. “So what?”

Victoria debated pushing the point for a moment, before deciding to the hell with it. “Thought you’d be back in there,” she said, nodding back in the direction of the door. “Palling it up with your old friends.”

Chloe gave her a sour look. “Why would I want to, when I could be living it up with you?” she asked sarcastically.

Well, far be from her to try and act too much like a friend towards Chloe fucking Price. “See you in there, or see you back at the house,” she said, tossing the remnants of the cigarette - resisting the urge to throw the crumpled envelope after it - before heading grimly inwards.

Time to see what she could salvage from this mess of a night.

* * * * *

In the time she’d been outside, the once spread out crowd had become more of a clump. Victoria rolled her eyes as she recognised the figure at the centre.

Rachel Amber.

Of course it was.

Even after ten years, it still seemed like she had a wholly undeserved grip on the hearts and minds of their classmates. It was all the more irritating because they had a genuinely famous photographer in their midst - Max - whilst Rachel was at best a second rate model at her peak. Which she most decidedly wasn’t anymore - Victoria hadn’t seen her in anything of note for a couple of years now.

At least Kate wasn’t buzzing around Rachel like a fly around… well. And Victoria had been meaning to talk with her. Maybe the incipient dread in her stomach would help distract her from… other things.

Kate eyed her watchfully as she made her way over. Not tense, but not quite with the same ease she’d had a few moments earlier.

“Kate,” Victoria said. “I…” No, apparently a simple apology simply refused to come out of her mouth. “What are you doing these days?” she said instead. Mealy-mouthed, insipid, unimaginative but all she could think of on the spur of the moment.

It was apparently - somehow - the right question. Kate relaxed and gave her a brilliant smile. “I run a foster home, actually,” she said. “It’s difficult work, but very rewarding.”

“Oh?” Victoria asked. For a cold moment, she worried that she had sounded sarcastic. “What’s that like?” she followed it up with, trying to sound more sincere,

“A lot of work, every day,” Kate said. “Usually, I get up at six every day, but for the past few months ever since Chris arrived, I’ve been getting up at five, because she’s always up early because of…” She broke off, looking a little embarrassed. “I’m sorry, you probably don’t want to hear all this.”

Victoria curved her lips, making an effort to hopefully not make the expression appear too bitchy. “Please feel free to continue. It sounds a lot more interesting than my typical day.” Not that she didn’t enjoy what she did, but she brought nowhere near the same amount of passion that was practically overflowing from Kate.

Kate gave her another little smile before launching into a description of her days, her home, her kids past and present.

It was oddly relaxing let it wash over her. Even if she couldn’t help wondering that *this* was the quiet mousy girl from a decade ago. 

What a difference that time had meant.

“Actually, Denise reminds me a lot of you at that age,” Kate said. “Similar sense of anger.”

Victoria blinked. “Oh?”

Kate seemingly ignored the slight chill in her tone. “Oh yes. Looking back, you make a lot more sense now.”

Victoria almost snapped at her, but managed to keep her mouth shut by main force.

“Back then, I mean. You back then makes a lot more sense now,” Kate corrected.

“I’m… sorry,” Victoria managed to force out. “For the way I treated you. It probably doesn’t help, but it was me, not you.”

Kate breathed out. “Thank you,” she said. “That can’t have been easy to say.”

Victoria looked down. It hadn’t been. But it should have been. She didn’t have any excuse, not now.

Shouldn’t she be past all this shit now?

She spotted the screwed up envelope in one hand, that she’d somehow managed to put out of her mind, and her stomach twisted. Suddenly she couldn’t bear to hold onto it for one more second.

“Here,” she said, thrusting it towards Kate. “Take this. For your home.”

Kate blinked. “You really don’t have to. If this is out of some kind of guilt…”

“It really isn’t,” Victoria said, with a twist to her lips. “Please, you’d be doing me a favour.”

“Well, okay,” Kate said, taking the envelope dubiously, sliding it into her handbag. “Here, have my number, just in case you change your mind about this.”

“I won’t,” Victoria said.

“Please,” Kate said and looked at her steadily until Victoria took out her phone. The conversation didn’t really recover after Victoria had inputted Kate’s number, and Victoria drifted off shortly thereafter, to mix with other former alumni.

Whilst doing her best to avoid Rachel fucking Amber, of course.

* * * * *

Beep. Beep. Beep.

For a moment, Victoria considered just hitting the alarm, drifting back off to sleep.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

But no. She had an early client this morning.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Besides, the incessant sound had already dug her far enough out of the comfortable pit of sleep that it wouldn’t be worth it.

She hit the alarm and stumbled into the shower, let the water carry her all the way to awake. By the time she emerged, she felt human enough to spread the misery. Chloe was sprawled gracelessly on the sofa when she got downstairs, cover trailing on the floor where she’d half kicked it off. Victoria was mildly pleased to note that Chloe had at least changed out of that improbable suit. Clothing that decent didn’t deserve to be treated that way.

Victoria rolled her eyes and poked her in the side, dancing away as Chloe flailed spasmodically. She darted in for another poke.

“Lea’ me a’one,” Chloe mumbled, pressing her head further into the cushions.

“Get up, you lazy layabout,” Victoria told her. “Time to earn your dubious keep.”

Chloe stuck her arm out, flipping her the bird whilst still keeping her face buried. “Ugh,” she mumbled. “How are you even awake?”

“Because some of us didn’t stay out until the morning,” Victoria told her smugly. “And because some of us have a job to get to.”

“Dunno why I put up with you,” Chloe said as she pushed herself up into a sitting position.

“Funny,” Victoria said dryly. “I was just thinking the same thing.”

Chloe slapped herself a few times. “Okay,” she said. “Awake now.” She rose to her feet and stumbled in the direction of the kitchen.

“*Sure* you’re not going to stab yourself in there?” Victoria asked sarcastically as she watched Chloe’s ramshackle progress.

Chloe groaned then stuck her head under the kitchen tap and turned it on. She turned it off a couple of seconds later, then flung her head back, narrowly avoiding Victoria with the spray. “Okay,” she said. “Awake now.” She turned around and grinned impishly at Victoria. “And nah, you don’t have to worry about me damaging my hands.” She winked at her.

Victoria quite involuntarily remembered Chloe in her suit from last night and flushed a little. “I don’t have any interest in your hands,” she snapped. “Apart from as it regards my breakfast,” she added in a more temperate tone.

Chloe shrugged. “Your loss,” she drawled. She grabbed a knife from the rack, the chopping board and a selection of bowls, before going to the fridge and retrieving eggs, bacon and an assortment of herbs and other supplies from a fridge that was markedly fuller than when Victoria had seen it last. “Honestly Vicks, not sure how you survive when I’m not here.”

“I eat the frozen remnants of what you leave behind you, *obviously*,” Victoria said, rolling her eyes.

“So sweet, Vicks, so sweet. Wanting to keep eating a little part of me after I’m gone.”

Ow. Apparently Victoria *could* hurt her eyes from rolling them too hard. She poked Chloe by way of retaliation.

“Hey,” Chloe yelped, squirming away. “I’m guessing you want the Boring Omelette special.”

“Some of us do care about watching our waistline.”

Chloe shrugged and started cutting up some herbs. Victoria waited until she had put the knife down before poking her in the ribs again. “So what was that you were wearing last night? Did you roll someone?” She smirked. “Was it Nathan’s dad? Tell me you rolled Nathan’s dad.”

“Is it really that hard to imagine me wearing a suit?” Chloe asked in a mock offended tone.

“Yes,” Victoria said flatly.

“Fuck you, Vicks,” Chloe said cordially. “And, as it happens, I have a suit because I occasionally need to put in a day at the office.”

“You have a job now?” Victoria asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Well not now-now. In between jobs at the moment.”

“What do you do when you’re not ‘in between jobs’?”

“Guess,” 

“No.”

“Fine,” Chloe said, and Victoria could almost sense as she attempted her own - undoubtedly inferior - eyeball. “Be boring like that.”

“So?”

“Freelance coder. There’s almost always a job for me somewhere on the west coast.”

“You? A computer geek?”

“You have a problem with that?” Chloe asked, a little aggressively.

Victoria laughed with a hint of evil in her voice. “No, I was just thinking how perfect it was. You with your faux-rebel tattoos and hair style. No wonder you drag your laptop with you everywhere you go.”

“Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up.”

“So why haven’t I ever seen you in a suit before?”

“Arcadia Bay isn’t exactly Silicon Valley or Seattle. If I’m around here, then I obviously don’t have a job which requires trips to the office.” Chloe’s phone beeped. “Anyway,” she said. “It’s time for the maestro to work.” Her phone beeped a couple more times but she ignored it as she tipped two whisked eggs into a heated pan. While eggs hissed she pulled the phone out from her pocket and started fiddling with it with one hand whilst the other alternately wielded the spatula and added herbs to the pan.

A few minutes later she tipped the contents of the pan onto a plate, then slid it in front of Victoria. “There you are,” she said then continued fiddling with her phone.

“Pick up any numbers last night?” Victoria asked dryly.

“One or two,” Chloe said, clearly not paying attention whilst Victoria tucked in.

Seriously, if her food wasn’t so good, Victoria would have thrown her out a long time ago.

Victoria finished up her breakfast then went upstairs to get dressed. She was just finishing up her makeup when the doorbell went.

“I’ll get it,” she called out. She rushed down the stairs to see Chloe in the hallway. “You - back to your pit,” she called. It probably wasn’t a client, but she had absolutely no desire to let anyone she knew that she let Chloe hang around her house.

“Uh…” Chloe said.

“Back,” she snapped. Chloe opened her mouth to say something, so Victoria made a pinching motion with her fingers. “Tch,” she said, and pointed towards the living room.

Chloe hesitated then - finally - followed her directive as the doorbell went again.

Victoria plastered on a smile then opened the door. “Hi,” she said before realising that it was Max on her doorstop, who looked similarly discombobulated.

“What are you doing here?” they both asked in unison.


	3. Chapter 3

“Oh. Chloe. Of course,” Victoria said at the same time as Max stammered, “Uh, sorry, wrong address.”

Max blinked. “Wait. Chloe?”

Victoria rolled her eyes. “I *do* assume that’s why you’re here. No wonder she was lurking by the front door.” She opened the door wider, to let Max past.

But Max apparently seemed stuck. “Chloe’s *here*? In,” she looked around, “*your* house?”

Victoria wondered briefly if she’d have to slap Max to break her out of her rut. The thought wasn’t entirely unpleasant. But maybe she should try and use more words first. “Yes,” she said slowly, enunciating clearly. “Chloe here, my house. Do try and catch up, or have you been sniffing too many developing chemicals in your trips around the world.”

Max blinked. “Uh… nice house,” she said, blushing lightly as she rubbed the back of her head.

“I’m glad we’ve managed to reach that far,” Victoria said. “Now, do you actually want to come in and meet the reprobate you’re here for?”

“Um, yes,” Max finally stammered. “Sorry. Just wasn’t expecting the whole,” she gestured towards Vicky,” *you* thing.”

“I think you’d already managed to establish that much over the last few minutes,” Victoria said dryly. “If you hurry, you might even be able to catch the last of breakfast.”

Max finally seemed to catch the hint and followed Victoria in. Victoria waited by the entrance and closed the door behind her.

“Um,” Max said, looking around. “Where should I put my shoes? I don’t want to, uh…” she waved around at the carpet.

“Impressive. You’re already better trained than Chloe. Give them to me - I’ll put them away.” 

Max smiled a little. “Yeah, I can kind of believe that.” She handed her shoes over and Victoria slid them into a rack in a closet.

Chloe was lurking by the door when they entered the living room, plate in hand, fork raised half to her mouth. Max halted at the sight of her and raised her hand awkwardly. “Hey, Chloe.”

Chloe raised her fork bearing hand in an equally dorky mirror. “Hey, Max.” They stayed there, looking at each other, frozen for one beat, two beats, three.

Finally Victoria couldn’t take it any more. “You,” she said, pointing at Max, “sit down on the couch. You,” pointing at Chloe, “Sit at the table to eat your food like a civilised person.”

Chloe made an inarticulate noise, but both followed her directions, Max even folding the cover Chloe had left draped across the couch.

“Wowsers,” Max said. “And you were saying you didn’t have her trained.”

“Hey!” Chloe complained. “I’m untrainable,” she said, tearing a strip of bacon up with her bare fingers before shoving it in her mouth as if to prove the pint.

“Sadly true,” Victoria concurred.

Max looked from Chloe to her back to Chloe, mouth slightly agape. “So, how? I mean, of all the things I expected when I came back for the reunion, you two? Pretty much at the bottom of the list.”

“Us two?” Victoria sneered. “There is no us two.”

“C’mon, Maximum Assumptions. Credit me with some taste.”

Victoria shot her a glare at that. If anyone deserved that line, it was her.

“But really,” Max pressed. “What are you doing staying at Victoria’s house?”

“Hey!” Chloe objected. “Maybe this is my house, which I’m kindly letting *Victoria* stay at.”

Max looked around. “Maybe,” she said, her voice skeptical.

Please, as if Chloe would own anywhere this clean and with decor this tasteful.

“I’m insulted by your lack of faith here,” Chloe said. 

Victoria looked at her sharply. There had been a note in her voice that hadn’t been quite as casual as Victoria had expected. Chloe’s attention was all on Max, who just ducked her head, smiling, and shrugged by way of reply. Something about the way that Chloe then leaned back made Victoria think that had been the wrong response - and she was really disturbed that she knew Chloe well enough to read that.

“I came across her curled up in the back of that junk heap she calls her truck, sleeping,” she broke in before this could go any further awry. “I’d say like a mangy feral mutt, only she wasn’t nearly that cute.”

From Max’s awwww face, apparently her mental image didn’t agree with that assessment. “So you took her home?”

“Ha,” Chloe said. “You really think the Queen of Mean had changed that much? She woke me up to berate me.”

“You didn’t seem to complain too much whilst you were stuffing your face with that free lunch I treated you to,” Victoria snapped, then shrugged at Max. “Honestly, it was just all just a little too pathetic.”

“C’mon, it wasn’t nearly as dramatic as she makes it sound. I was just back in the Bay visiting the parental unit, and David and I got into it - no big surprises there - so I decided to sleep the night away in my truck. Not like I hadn’t done that a hundred times before. But, y’know, not like I was going to turn down the free food.”

“Of course, her general state of unwashedness was enough to put me off my food - which, naturally, she had no problems finishing as well - so after that I decided it would be for the public good that I took her back to get cleaned off. I *did* consider using a hose in the garden, but I judged that - knowing her - there’d be too much risk of her stripping off and giving the neighbours an eyeful, and, well, there *are* children next door.”

“I did have fun using all your expensive froo-froo soaps and shampoo and conditioners and such like,” Chloe said with a wistful smile.

“Not to mention not listening when I said you only needed to use a *little*,” Victoria returned.

“And, so, yeah. She offered me a bed for the night. Apparently she didn’t want me ruining her good name by hobo-ing it up.”

“There are people around here who know I went to school with you.”

“And then threatened to set the police on me for vagrancy if I ever decided to sleep in a car around here again, whilst grudgingly saying that I could stay here if need be.” Chloe held her hand up to her mouth to mock whisper. “Obviously, her real reason was that I told her I would cook whenever I stayed over, as well as the chance to perv on my banging bod, but y’know what she’s like.”

“I do *not* want to perv on your banging bod,” Victoria almost shrieked.

Chloe smirked back at her. “So you don’t deny the food thing.”

“Your cooking is acceptable,” Victoria said grudgingly.

“Nor that my bod is banging,” Chloe added.

Victoria was saved from having to answer by a knock on the front door. 

Kind of.

“I’m guessing that’s also for you,” she said shortly.

Chloe gave a one shouldered shrug and a grin.

Victoria rolled her eyes and got to her feet, stomach already twisting in anticipation. When she opened the door, to her complete lack of surprise, Rachel was standing on the doorstep.

“Hey-“ Rachel started, smiling, then stopped as she saw who was opening the door.

Victoria closed the door on her wordlessly.

It was an asinine impulse.

It was petty.

It was highly satisfying.

She took a breath and opened the door again, making sure to cake a smile on her lips. The first thing she saw was Rachel, looking far too knowing for Victoria’s comfort.

“Rachel,” she said, saccharine sweet. “How utterly delightful to see you again. Chloe’s in the living room. Please come this way.”

She didn’t bother to wait for a reply before turning and striding back into the house. When she stopped by the entrance to the living room, Rachel stopped far too close to her.

“Victoria-“ she started, quietly.

“I’m sorry,” Victoria said brightly. “As *fun* as I’m sure it’d be to hang around with you all day, I’ve actually got a job to attend to.” She manoeuvred past Rachel and almost ran upstairs to finish her preparations for the day.

Thank *god* for the day job.

* * * * *

By the time she’d finished with all her clients for the day, and spent more time going through photos she’d already taken and arranging them in albums, it was getting dark out.

Probably not late enough, though. Chloe had ten years to catch up with the rest of her trinity. Victoria couldn’t quite believe they’d be done yet. Be done today.

She didn’t feel equipped to deal with that sober and like hell was she going to be chased out of her own living room. Luckily, there was a simple solution for that. She stopped by the liquor store to buy some wine and the shit that Chloe liked to drink. She briefly debated whether to text Chloe to find out what the others would like, but then didn’t. She might have - probably would have - if it’d just been Max there. But she wasn’t going to get anything especially for Rachel fucking Amber.

Hell, she’d probably drink it, then try and pay Victoria back ten years later.

Well, they could both just deal and either drink or not. She didn’t really care.

When she opened the front door, she could hear the sound of talking from the direction of the living room. The loud raucous voice of Chloe, quiet enthusiasm of Max… the measured tones of Rachel.

Damn.

She adopted a bright smile regardless and advanced towards them. As she entered the room, the talking stopped and three faces looked towards her.

“Good evening, Chloe, friends,” she said, smiling sharply. “I come bearing alcohol.”

“More?” Chloe said. “Cool. I may have, uh, run through what you had here.” Bottles scattered around the room attested to the truth of that statement.

“Did you really think I’d expect anything else?”

Max smiled crookedly up at her. “Yeah. The drinking games might have been a mistake, looking back on it.”

Victoria couldn’t help her smile softening a little at that. “They usually are, when they involve her,” she said, nodding towards Chloe.

Max’s smile turned a little bitter. “You’d have thought I’d have known that.”

“If everyone is getting ready for round two, I guess I better clean up round one,” Rachel said, getting to her feet and gathering empty glasses and bottles. Only a glass near her, Victoria noticed, and when she went to the kitchen, she poured herself some water.

“Nothing for you?” Victoria asked mockingly as she cleaned herself a glass. “That’s a change, isn’t it?”

Rachel smiled cooly at her. “I’m a teetotaller these days.”

That… stopped Victoria dead. That really wasn’t the girl she’d known and for the first time she looked at Rachel, *really* looked at her. She really wasn’t the party girl Victoria remembered, with her too cool clothes and attitude, complete with her ridiculous single feather earring. She was… actually dressed fairly sensibly. Not as smartly as Victoria was, but that not far off, either. 

Had she really been dressed like that this morning? Victoria searched her memory, but couldn’t remember anything other than her standard Blackwell getup.

“Huh,” Victoria said and poured herself some wine. “Better you than me.” But she couldn’t find it in herself to be as hostile as before. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of this new Rachel at all.

She lingered a moment longer, then took her glass and bottle and retreated to a chair in the corner where she could observe the ongoing situation.

“So,” Rachel said once she had returned from the kitchen and sat down. “Is it true that the only reason that you let Chloe stay here is because of her ‘skillz’ in bed?”

Victoria choked on the wine she had been drinking. A sharp glance Rachel’s way convinced her that, yes, the timing had been completely intentional. She glared at her. “Is that what Chloe told you?”

“Reading between the lines a little,” she admitted, smirking a little. “But do you really expect us to believe that you just took pity on her?”

Any ease Victoria was feeling vanished. “Because the only reason that I’d give someone anything is because I want something in return, of course,” she spat, her fingers clenched so tightly around her glass they were almost white.

Rachel looked satisfactorily gobsmacked. Chloe half rose to her feet, looking like she was getting ready to intercept Victoria if she tried hurling herself at Rachel or something ridiculous like that.

For Victoria’s part, she wanted to run, to just get out of here. But she wouldn’t - couldn’t - let herself be driven away from her own space like this.

No matter how unclean Rachel made her feel.

“Hey,” Max broke in. “She didn’t mean it like that. It’s just… I know I for one wasn’t expecting you to answer the door this morning. And Chloe has been cracking jokes all day about how you only let her stay here for her body.”

Victoria glared at the reprobate in question, but relaxed anyway. Maybe it’d be alright if she could just try and blank out… the other person as much as possible, “She would,” she said. “She likes to delude herself that everyone drools over her as much as she loves that laptop of hers.” She nodded towards the laptop laying on the floor next to the sofa,

“Hey,” Chloe said, laying a protective hand over the computer in question. “Don’t be hating on her.”

“So,” Rachel said, looking at Chloe with a slight smile on her face. “You’re saying that if I want back in your heart I’ll have to fight your computer for space?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Chloe said, picking it up and cradling it to her. “She’s always going to be first in my life.”

Rachel’s voice went low and throaty in a way that made Victoria instinctively want to snarl. “So what would her thoughts be on a threesome?”

“People here,’ Max squeaked, cheeks red. “Other people here!”

“Have they been like this all day?” Victoria asked her.

“It’s Chloe,” Max said as thought it was an answer in an of itself. Thinking about it, Victoria had to concede the point.

“Do *not* make me break out the spritzer,” Victoria told Chloe.

She broke off flirty eye contact with Rachel and made a face. “Spoilsport.”

The evening progressed in a… not entirely unpleasant way, certainly once Rachel got the message about not talking to Victoria; she, for her part, returned the favour by doing her best to cordially ignore Rachel.

It mostly worked.

When Chloe stepped outside to have a cigarette, Rachel followed her and Max turned towards Victoria.

“So,” she said.”What’re you doing these days? I mean,” she said self-consciously, “I know you had a few minor shoots on the fashion circuit about four years ago, but since then? Nothing.”

“You know about them? I’m flattered,” Victoria said sarcastically, but she was a little, despite herself.

Max ducked her head. “Why wouldn’t I want to keep an eye on the career of my most talented classmate?” she asked smiling.

Victoria shrugged with an ease that she didn’t feel. “Nothing to say, really. Nathan was having a bad period.” The memory of the phone call informing her of his suicide attempt still sometimes brought her out in cold sweat. “I moved back here to take care of him.” Once he was allowed visitors. More so once he’d been discharged. “Lord knows that his family wasn’t up to the task. But that’s hardly a full time job. Not that there’s much to do around here, but I more or less fell into event photography.”

“How is Nathan? I didn’t see him at the reunion.”

“He’s in a better place. Both geographically and emotionally.” Victoria gave Max a twisted smile. “School isn’t exactly full of fluffy memories for him. I’m sure you understand.”

Max laughed dorkily. “Yeah, I can get that. So… why are you still here if Nathan’s gone?”

Victoria glared at her.

Max held her hands up in surrender. “Okay, shutting up now.”

“If we’re asking personal questions, Max Caulfield, then what about the biggest mystery of our class?” Victoria asked, narrowing her eyes. “What happened to break up you and,” she waved in the direction the others had disappeared in, “the rest of the holy trinity.”

Max hunched down in on herself. “It’s not something I’m proud of.”

Victoria raised her eyebrow. “It was *your* fault? Seriously? St. Max of the Caulfield?”

She blushed. “I was just a stupid kid back then. I thought you of all people would understand that.”

Victoria stiffened, bit down on her first response to lash out. “I know I was,” a bitch, a cow, a shit. She couldn’t even think slut, not with the burning presence of Rachel so close by, “not exactly the nicest person back in those days, but that certainly wasn’t you.”

Max’s eyes went wide. “No, that’s not what I was getting at. I meant you’d know that I was just a stupid kid back then, because y’know.”

“You did have a tragic lack of confidence,” Victoria allowed. “And you were certainly a mess at times. But I wouldn’t have said that you were stupid.”

“Really?” Max asked skeptically.

“Really. So?” Victoria tapped one finger against her glass. “What happened?”

“Oh god. Well, I had been kind of low key crushing on Rachel for a while when we had that whole photo competition. Working with her so closely was kind of intense, threw the crush thing into high gear. And… at the same time, she got the modelling offer.” Max looked down, studying the ground. “I think she reached for a friend and I… I just saw my crush, you know? I messed the whole thing up completely and the next thing I knew she was gone.” She shook her head. “Chloe… The mess with Chloe was kind of a result of that. She was my best friend and I needed her and, well, she’s kind of hot and I think I let those too combine and… And I was basically a hot mess and far too clingy and I managed the sterling job of driving her off too, by trying to hold on too tightly.” She looked back up at Victoria. “I don’t know what, if anything, happened between Chloe and Rachel. I’d always kinda imagined that when Chloe left she’d ended up hooking up with Rachel in California. Also kinda surprised you don’t know this already, given Chloe had a prime side seat for all of this.”

Victoria laughed shortly. “When I first met up with Chloe again, I really didn’t care. By the time I did, I, well…”

“Cared?” Max offered.

“Exactly.”

Laughter echoed from the hallway, then Chloe and Rachel piled back into the room. Max leaned back, her focus shifting to the newcomers with a slightly wistful air, and Victoria certainly wasn’t going to do anything to change that with Rachel around.

It seemed the time for intimate talks were over, at least for the moment.


	4. Chapter 4

“And that’s how the twelve jugs of lemonade ended up on the roof of the dorm,” Rachel said, waggling her eyebrows for effect.

Victoria laughed involuntarily and immediately felt a stab of betrayal at the reaction. Clearly she’d had too much wine. Not that a lack of being charming had ever been one of Rachel’s problems. Chloe, naturally, had cackled loudly and Max, half slumped over, bottle of beer in hand, had grinned, her eyes focussed softly on Rachel.

Victoria, abruptly, had had enough. “It’s time for me to get to bed,” she said, getting to her feet. “Some of us have things to do in the morning.” Not a lot, given it was a Sunday, but it was as good an excuse as any.

Rachel, naturally, rose smoothly to her feet. Max, substantially less so. Despite having been steadily drinking throughout the day, she had seemed more or less unaffected up until this point. 

Apparently that had been something of an illusion.

Victoria rolled her eyes. “Hold up there, Caulfield. You’re not going anywhere. There’s a spare bed upstairs you can sleep in.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve already got a room.”

“Like I’m going to trust you to get there in your current state.”

Max blinked slowly. “Um, okay. Sure, I guess.”

“Decisive as ever, I see.” Victoria went to grab her by the arm, managed to securely get a hold of it on the second attempt. Okay, maybe Max wasn’t the only one who had had a few drinks. But at *she* wasn’t swaying gently in the air as though there was a breeze.

“Victoria’s home for wayward Blackwell girls,” Rachel sardonically said as Victoria led Max from the living room. 

Victoria stiffened as Chloe snickered. “Hah. She still has a way to go before she gets the entire set.”

“You’ll note that I haven’t offered Rachel somewhere to stay,” Victoria said.

“I haven’t had anything to drink,” Rachel observed neutrally.

“Yes,” Victoria said shortly as she started pushing Max up the stairs.

Somehow she managed to get Max up to the landing without incident. “There’s the bathroom, that’s my room - don’t go in there if you value your vital organs - and that’s your room. It’s been freshly made up, so you should only need to pour yourself into it. If you need a toothbrush, there are some unopened packets in the cabinet above the sink.” 

“Hey, if there’s only one spare room, where’s Chloe going to stay?” Max asked then blushed. “Um, not that it’s any of my business or anything.”

“Chloe prefers sleeping on the couch, for some reason best known to her diseased brain.”

“So you’ve never…”

“We most certainly have not. I’ve never even found her attractive until-“ Victoria managed to snap her mouth shut, unfortunately a word too late.

Max, propping herself up against a wall, said, “Until?” Apparently she wasn’t impaired enough to miss the slip.

Dammit.

“The reunion,” Victoria said tightly. “The suit, to be exact. She might not be entirely unfortunate looking in that.”

Max tilted her head until it was reacting against the wall. “You going to do anything about that?”

Victoria snorted. “Are you mad? She’s my friend. I like her. Yeah, sure she’s hot in that suit, but there’s no way I’m risking what I managed to stumble into just for that. I thought you of all people would get that.”

Max winced. “Ouch. Point.”

“And don’t think I haven’t spotted *your* slight conflict of interest in the matter.”

“What do you mean?” Max was undoubtedly doing her best to look blank, but the way her eyes skidded off Victoria’s told Victoria all she needed to know.

“Really.”

“It’s nothing, really,” Max mumbled.

“But if Chloe hooked up with me, Rachel might look somewhere else?”

“I really hadn’t gotten that far. It’s just… ugh, Rachel was my first… whatever, and apparently I haven’t forgotten as much of how she made me feel as I thought.”

“And it sucks seeing her flirt with someone else in front of you.”

Max looked up at her. “I’m not going to do anything about it. And, honestly, although Chloe flirts with everyone, she seems to, y’know, enjoy it more with you.”

Victoria resisted the urge to point out that it was probably because Chloe and her had had a non-defunct relationship over the last several years - one predicated on friendship, nothing else, and instead softened. A little. “Come on, Max. Let’s get you to bed.”

Max flailed a little, but acquiesced.

By the time that Victoria returned downstairs, Rachel had decided to settle back on the couch, curled up with Chloe and her laptop.

Chloe looked up as Victoria entered and grinned. “Just showing Rachel some of my work.”

Victoria stifled a stab of jealousy. *She’d* only found out that Chloe programmed for a living this morning, and here was Rachel already getting the inside scoop. “I do hope you’re not drunk coding,” she snapped.

“Maybe that’s how I do my best work.”

Victoria sneered. “With you? I can believe it.”

“Hurt here. Maybe I won’t share what’s on here with you as well,” she said, grinning tauntingly.

Victoria pressed her fingers into her palms. “Visiting time is over, Amber. Time to crawl back underneath whichever rock you’re staying at whilst you’re in town.”

“Goodnight, Chloe,” Rachel said and got back to her feet.

“Night,” Chloe said and took the opportunity to sprawl horizontally out on the couch, grabbing the cover and wrapping it around herself.

Victoria grabbed Rachel’s shoes from the closet and shoved them at her. “Here,” she said, smiling tightly.

“Thanks,” Rachel said.

Victoria kept an eye on her whilst she put them on. It wasn’t that she’d necessarily say that she didn’t trust Rachel to leave unless she was watching her… but she’d certainly feel better once she had made sure that Rachel had left with her own two eyes.

“Have a good night,” she said, opening the door for Rachel to leave.

Rachel paused in the doorway. “You don’t like me much, do you,” she said, turning to look at Victoria.

She didn’t much see the point in denying it. “I’m impressed you bothered noticing.”

“You haven’t exactly done a good job hiding it,” she said, then sighed softly, leaning against the door frame. “Is there anything else I can do to make things less awkward? I’ve already paid back the money I owe you.”

Victoria brandished the door at her at the reminder, almost slamming it on her for good measure. Rachel stepped rapidly forwards and for a moment Victoria considered just closing the door and going to bed, but instead she followed her out and shut it behind her. If they were going to have this conversation - whatever it turned out to be - she had no intention of letting anyone else in the house eavesdrop.

“That,” she said tightly. “Was never the problem.”

“I did wonder,” Rachel said, now opening observing her. “You didn’t seem to be exactly pleased.”

“And yet you handed me the money anyway, despite my obvious feelings on the matter.”

“You really want to talk about emotions, and what one of us has done to the other on that front?”

“I’m happy not talking about it at all. You’re the one who brought this up.”

Rachel held up a hand, acknowledging a hit. “I’m just here to reconnect with old friends.” Of which you’re not one didn’t need to be said. “So? I took advantage of you back then, I admit it. But I’ve apologised, which is more than you’ve done for all your shitty behaviour.”

“No, you didn’t.”

“What did you think me giving you the money back was?”

“If that counts, what did you think me organising the reunion pretty much single handedly was?” Victoria shot back.

Rachel looked at her for a moment, then there her head back and laughed. “We’re a pair, aren’t we?”

Victoria’s lips twitched in displeasure. “You were apologising for the wrong thing, anyway. The money wasn’t the problem. It wasn’t ever the problem.”

Rachel tilted her head curiously. “I must have imagined someone else calling me a whore way back when, then.”

Victoria glared at her. “Did you really think I honestly expected you to return anything I ever gave you? It wasn’t as though your shitty background was some big secret.”

Rachel finally showed some emotion and glared back. “So, what, you thought you’d just pity-friend me for a while, then call me whore when I failed to live up to whatever fucked-up ideal you had of me? Or maybe just when you got bored?”

“N-no!” Victoria stammered. “It wasn’t like that!”

“What was it like then?” Rachel asked, eyes like some dark demanding goddess.

“It was-“ Victoria screwed up her eyes, tried to think through the fog, the years, the denial. “You were my friend. I liked you. I thought you liked me. But then I saw how you were with everyone else.” She opened her eyes, tried to get her fire back. “I was just another shitty project to you, just another dupe to leech money and goods off.”

“I didn’t take anything you didn’t give me!”

“You made *me* feel like the whore,” Vicky shot back before she realised it, then slapped her hand over her mouth, eyes wide.

“And that gave you the right to try and make me feel like one?”

Victoria took one breath, two before her jaw unlocked enough to say something. “No,” she muttered through clenched teeth. “No, it didn’t.” And it certainly didn’t give her the right to try and make other people feel that way, she thought as shame crawled up her spine.

Rachel drummed her fingers against her legs as she looked up to the sky and took a deep breath of her own. “Would it help if you gave me back the money?” she finally asked, her voice still a little harsh.

“No need. I already donated it to Kate,” she said. “She’s running a foster home these days,” she added when Rachel looked blank.

“I’m glad it’s doing some good, then,” Rachel said. “I guess I’ll make arrangements to meet up with Chloe and Max elsewhere tomorrow.”

Victoria turned away, abruptly done with her, with the whole night, really. “Only if you can’t bear my decor for another day,” she said to the door. “I’m big enough now to deal with your presence.”

“How magnanimous of you,” she said dryly

“Like you said,” Victoria said bitterly. “It’s not like I didn’t do my best to return the favour. I’m sure you didn’t give me anything I didn’t have coming.”

There was a long pause, long enough that Victoria began to wonder if Rachel had left. “Okay,” she said, sounding closer now, close enough that Victoria’s back erupted in pins and needles in anticipation. She sighed. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry I made you feel that way.”

I’m sorry for what I did too, Victoria wanted to say, but couldn’t. “So I’ll see you tomorrow morning?” she asked, still facing away.

Rachel laughed, only a little sharply. “I believe that is Chloe’s plan. Apparently she has special plans for the lunch she’s planning tomorrow.”

“I’d hate to miss that,” she said, sliding the key into the lock. Behind her, she heard a car door open. As she closed the door behind her, a car engine started up.

She stayed standing there until the sound of the car faded into the distance.

* * * * *

Victoria slowly awoke to the sense of something deeply wrong. At first, she wasn’t quite sure what it was.

But then…

Was that the smell of cooking food?

But that would mean…

Chloe was up? Before Victoria had forcefully prodded her awake?

*That* was new.

Max, maybe? But no, unless someone else was snoring from the spare bedroom.

She pushed herself up out of bed, pulled on some clothes and went to investigate these bizarre proceedings.

“Turning over a new leaf, Price?” she asked as she stumbled downstairs.

The answer was awaiting her on a chair in the living room - Rachel looking at her with a vaguely challenging air.

“According to *some* people, eight o’clock is a perfectly reasonable time to be woken up,” came Chloe’s grumble from the kitchen.

“And when would have been a better time? Midday?” Rachel asked sweetly.

“I’m thinking it wouldn’t have been a bad option.”

Rachel got up and moved behind Chloe, hand raised as if she was going to poke, prod or possibly lightly slap her, but as she approached, her hand paused in the air, wavered for a moment, before falling back down to her side. “Yes, well,” she said. “Some of us have to fly out tonight, and I’d kinda like to see more of you before then. Max and Victoria too, of course.”

Ouch, Victoria thought, somewhat glad that Max wasn’t down here to see her name lumped in like that with Victoria’s. The kitchen was getting kind of full, so she lingered by the entrance, looking in. “What time’s your flight?” she asked.

Rachel flashed her a glance that Victoria couldn’t quite decipher, but probably amounted to something like ‘Speaking to me now?’ “Seven,” she said. “So I’ll be hitting the road around three.”

“Hah,” Chloe said. “You people who have to be a certain place at a certain time. This is why I carry my office with me as much as possible.”

“You are a hobo at heart,” Victoria agreed caustically, a little surprised when Rachel flashed her a grin.

Chloe just shrugged. “Can’t say you’re completely wrong about that.” She turned around and had to briefly dance with Rachel to get to the surface where she’d left her prepped ingredients. “You, out,” she said, pointing to Rachel with a bowl of chopped spring onions in her other hand. “No cluttering up the kitchen whilst the maestro is at work.”

Victoria backed away to let Rachel out, then retreated to an armchair after a moment’s thought. Chloe only had a certain amount of patience for other people when she was cooking, and it seemed that limit had been reached. Rachel’s eyes were on her as she retreated to an armchair.

“You did say I could come around today,” Rachel said in a low tone as Victoria settled down.

Victoria froze for a moment, before relaxing. “And you certainly seem to have availed yourself of that opportunity,” she said, but her tone lacked bite.

Rachel searched her face for a moment anyway, before slowly nodding.”Are you going to be mostly ignoring me today as well?”

Victoria flushed, but then managed a thin smile. “I don’t think me not paying you attention has ever been one of our issues. But as far as I’ll strive to be concerned, you’re one of Chloe’s former school friends. Nothing more, nothing less. And who knows, we might even be able to talk to each other at some point about something other than money or debts.”

Rachel looked at her for a moment longer before nodding. “Done,” she said, then gave her a slow smile. “So,” she said in a teasing voice, loud enough to be heard in the kitchen, “Chloe told us yesterday about how you have an album full of photos of her.”

“Victoria said it’d be a crime not to preserve this body for posterity,” Chloe called back.

“I did not!” Victoria snapped. Before the reunion, before that damn *suit*, she wouldn’t have flushed at what this sounded like, what Rachel and Chloe were clearly implying, but now she could feel her cheeks burning red. “I just like to maintain *some* level of practise in photography that isn’t centred around weddings and graduations. And Price owes me for the space and is vain enough not to mind being photographed.”

“True that,” Chloe said.

“So?” Rachel said.

Victoria rolled her eyes but got to her feet. Chloe at least would run this into the ground until Victoria gave in, and best now rather than later, when Max was around. She’d probably be nice and polite and encouraging and… ugh. It set Victoria’s teeth on edge just thinking about it.

“Here,” she said, pushing the folder at Rachel. “There should be enough pictures of Chloe to satisfy even you.”

“And breakfast is served,” Chloe said, coming out of the kitchen with two food-bearing plates. “Oh yeah,” she said as she handed one to Rachel. “That one on the top left is one of my favourites.”

Victoria rolled her eyes - as she half suspected Chloe intended her to - because of *course* Price liked the one that showed off her butt.

“Mmmm…” Rachel said noncommittally. “I think I actually prefer these,” she said, indicating a series of shots where Chloe was artistically sprawled across the sofa, the light of dawn illuminating the feathery tips of her hair.

Apparently she had some taste after all.

“Hey, what’s this?” came a groggy voice from the direction of the stairs. “Oh, some of Victoria’s shots,” Max said somewhat more brightly as she made her way over, clipping the corner of the tea table on the way past. “Let me have a look.”

Oh great, Victoria thought. Max Caulfield has managed to add her two cents after all.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry this took me so long to get out - combination of feeling ill and writer's block. I hope it doesn't disappoint too much.

Victoria retreated to the kitchen, plate in hand, as Max hopped on the arm of the couch. Maybe just so she could get a look at the folder, but Victoria had her doubts.

“Keeping the meat to yourself, I see,” she said, hissing erupting from the pan on the stove as Chloe tipped a bowl of diced meat into it.

“Rachel’s a vegetarian,” Chloe said, too innocently.

Victoria glared at her. “I’m not.”

“Um-hmmm.”

“All I can say is that I better get my share of that when you’re done.”

“Are you actually going to eat what’s on your plate, or are you just going to complain about the deficiencies of what I made for you?”

Victoria raised an eyebrow. “You really need to ask?”

“Well, in that case…” Chloe said, her stomach growling as if on cue. 

Victoria might, if pressed, admit that Chloe’s seeming talent to do that at will had her slightly in awe.

“Fine,” she said, loading her fork up then holding it in front of Chloe’s mouth, which obligingly opened and darted forward with pink, snicker-snack quick lips.

Victoria swallowed and refocussed her attention on the plate and to preparing another forkful of food for the voracious engine of destruction that was Chloe’s stomach. She wasn’t going to let the weirdness of the last few days infect this friendship. She wasn’t.

Even given the awkwardness of the situation, it didn’t surprise Victoria in the slightest that Chloe managed to clear the plate with her assistance before round two finished cooking. Whilst she was waiting for Chloe to do that and dish up, she wandered back to the living room for want of anything better to do.

Max was still balanced on the arm of the couch, curling up slightly to rest her head on Rachel’s shoulder as they flicked through the album. Something turned in Victoria’s stomach as Max lifted her head briefly so Rachel could turn around and feed her a forkful of food off her plate.

Rachel had better not be leading Max on.

The protective instinct surprised her a little. But maybe it wasn’t that at all. Nothing nearly so admirable.

“Hey, Victoria,” Max said as she finally registered her presence. “Some of these are really good.”

Max’s face was stupidly earnest, which was the only thing stopping Victoria from snapping back that she didn’t need Max’s fucking pity.

“Thanks,” she muttered and retreated away from them, back into the kitchen.

“Nice tactic for dealing with Victoria there, Max” she heard Rachel say from the living room, and she can just about imagine the smug little smile she was wearing. “I’ll have to remember it.”

Victoria clenched her fists until her knuckles went white and her palms hurt from her fingernails driving into them, but managed to say nothing in response to that. Somehow.

“Grubs up!” Chloe cheerfully yelled from behind her, making her jump a little.

Victoria turned around, shoulders still so tense that she felt like a mannequin, and Chloe tilted her head in an unspoken question that Victoria shook her head sharply at. She certainly didn’t need any more fucking questions at the moment.

The food, at least, was excellent as ever; a mix of seared bacon, herbs, potatoes and eggs that Chloe somehow managed to make far more than the sum of its ingredients. In the back of Victoria’s mind, Chloe’s cooking had always been how she’d made her carefree living up and down the coast as her whims took her, staying wherever she had a bud who would exchange a space for some food.

It still might be how she lived, for all Victoria knew. At least now the mystery about how Chloe could afford the food she consistently insisted on buying had been solved. As had any trace of Victoria’s (admittedly vague) sense of guilt about letting her do just that.

Chloe, fucking naturally, wandered back to the living room to eat, rather than using the kitchen table like a halfway civilised human being. Naturally this meant that Victoria had to follow her or be left behind, like a complete loser. 

She sat down on a chair in the living room with some ill grace. Max and Rachel were still looking at the folder in a way that made Victoria itch. Chloe, damn her, was sprawled next to Rachel on the couch, a shit eating grin on her face.

The three of them clumped up together, with Victoria looking on. There was probably a message in that, if Victoria cared to find one, which she didn’t.

Rachel looked over at Victoria speculatively. “What are your rates like, anyway?”

“Very reasonable,” Victoria instantly answered, feeling defensive. “Probably too cheap, really,” she amended. “Around here, they’d have to be, regardless of the lack of competing talent. Why?” she added after a moment, suspicious.

Rachel shrugged. “I’ve got a graduation coming up. I’d like to have a professional-level record of that.”

Victoria fought down the impulse to feel flattered that Rachel wanted her to do this. She was good, damnit. She certainly didn’t need any validation from her. “I’m surprised Max hasn’t already volunteered for this duty.”

“I’ve got an invite,” Max interjected. “But this is really more your sort of thing. Though I’m doubtless going to take a few snaps of my own.”

“Doubtless,” Victoria echoed, then put on her professional face. “Do you have a date yet?” she asked.

They dickered back and forth for a while, Victoria raising the price given travel and hotel costs, Rachel bargaining her down a little, shamelessly playing the old school friend card for all it was worth.

Somehow, despite everything, Rachel managed to make that work, much to Victoria’s unwilling respect.

Max stayed quiet throughout the process, still perched on the arm of the couch next to Rachel. Chloe, of course, seemed to view the whole thing as a spectator sport designed for her entertainment.

Frankly, Victoria was just somewhat grateful that she didn’t *actually* make popcorn as she threatened to do more than once.

Finally, they came to an agreement. Victoria would stay with Rachel whilst she was there - she still wasn’t quite sure how she’d been manoeuvred into agreeing to that - and she’d be paid enough to cover her flight as well as a somewhat nominal fee to photograph the event. 

For a moment, silence reigned. Rachel exuded the air of a satisfied cat. Chloe looked like she was going to offer Rachel a high five at any moment. 

Max, at least, offered her a smile. “At least I won’t have to wait ten years to see you again,” she said.

Victoria decided to change the subject. “So what was Africa like?”

Max blinked. “Which part? It’s a fairly large place, and I’ve been to some fairly different parts.”

“Which was your favourite?” Victoria asked, half interested in the answer, half just wanting to talk about anything else other than her for the moment.

* * * * *

The toilet flushed. A minute or two later, Rachel, looking freshened up, opened the door then halted as she saw Victoria waiting outside for her.

“You should have told me you were waiting,” Rachel said, giving Victoria an evaluating look.

“I really hope you’re not just leading Max on, playing with her for your own amusement,” she said flatly.

Rachel laughed. “Really, Victoria?”

Victoria felt something tight and unpleasant twist within her. “It’s not funny.”

The smile faded from Rachel’s expression. “No,” she said. “I suppose it’s not.”

“So?”

She shrugged. “I’m not exactly leading anyone on. I might not really remember Max from school - she was always more of Chloe’s friend than mine - but she’s really become a person now, you know? Not to mention she’s a big girl now. She can make her own decisions. And I hardly think she believes that anything is going to happen in the few hours before I fly out. After that - when I have time to actually have a relationship after I graduate - who knows?””

Victoria relaxed somewhat. “I guess,” she said. “Sorry,” she added stiffly.

Rachel studied her. “For someone who hasn’t seen Max for a decade, you seem to care an awful lot.”

Victoria looked at her, caught, unable to reply.

“You’ve changed,” Rachel said. “For the better, I think. Even if your opinion of me apparently hasn’t,” she added somewhat wryly.

“I-“ Victoria started, before halting, realising that she had nowhere to go from there.

“Maybe I’d like to get to know you better too. When I have time for a life again,” she said, then turned and headed downstairs towards the living room.

Victoria gaped after her. “But… why?” she called after her.

“Maybe you’ve become a person too,” she said over her shoulder.

Victoria stood there frozen for a moment, before following her down, confused and somehow a little charmed despite herself.

*Fucking* Rachel Amber.

* * * * *

Rachel’s phone beeped. “Oh,” she said after taking it out to look at it. “That’s me. Sorry,” she said, getting to her feet. “I’ve got to go catch my flight.”

Chloe raised her hand lazily. “Been good catching up with you,” she said.

Rachel bent down to give her a hug. “Let’s make it a little less than ten years this time, yeah?”

“You’ve got my email address.”

Max hopped to her feet. “Actually, ah, could I catch a lift with you?”

Rachel smiled at her. “Sure. Be glad for the company. Victoria,” she said, turning around towards her.

“Rachel,” Victoria said, refusing to move an inch.

Something like amusement flashed through Rachel’s eyes before she bent down to give Victoria a firm hug as well, which… Rachel was standing upright again before Victoria could do much more than stall on the fact that Rachel had done that, leaving nothing but the smell of her perfume behind her.

Victoria wasn’t exactly sure what her face looked like, but everyone else seemed far too amused for her good so she glared at them all in turn. “I believe something was mentioned about a flight,” she snapped.

“Hey, Chloe,” Max said, raising a hand. “See you around some time?”

“Sure,” Chloe said lazily. “Maybe I’ll even come visit you on one of your trips aboard one of these days. Get you to show me around.”

Max gave her a pleased little smile. “I’d like that.” She looked in Victoria’s direction. “And, uh, it’s been nice catching up with you too.”

“Thanks,” Victoria said, a little sarcastically. “It’s been nice meeting the legend that is Max Caulfield too.”

“Well, if this ‘living legend’ can help you in any way…”

“I don’t need it,” she snapped then took a breath. “I’ve got a business here. I’m okay.”

Max stood there for a moment, looking at her. “You do good work,” she said. “Completely different style from me, but maybe we could work together some time.”

Victoria ground her teeth together, before releasing her breath explosively. There was no way she was going to take a handout, certainly not Max Caulfield, but…

She certainly sounded earnest enough.

“Get back to me when you have a proposal, Caulfield” she said, then added reluctantly, ”Thanks. Having you around hasn’t been anywhere near as excruciating as I would have thought.”

Max broke into a grin. “Is that Victoria for you enjoyed having me around?”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Victoria grumbled. “But if it were, it’d certainly be a Chase family tradition.”

“But seriously,” Max said. “Thanks for letting me crash last night.”

“No problem,” Victoria said then made a shooing motion. “Now go. I wouldn’t want to stop Rachel from getting as far away from me as possible.”

“I was right!” Chloe crowed. “You tots have a crush on her.”

“I’ll crush you,” Victoria threatened. “I know where you sleep.”

“Eh,” Chloe said. “Talk, talk, talk.”

“I’ll just leave you two to bicker, shall I?” Rachel said and with a final wave, she was gone, Max trailing after her.

“Finally,” Victoria said, grabbing the clicker and sitting down on the couch.

“Been missing your nerd cartoons?” Chloe sneered.

“It’s anime,” Victoria said primly, “and it’s entirely not my fault that I haven’t had a moments peace to myself all weekend until now. Feel free to play with your computer if you don’t want to experience some quality entertainment.”

“Way ahead of you,” Chloe said, flipping open her laptop.

Victoria relaxed into the couch as the television screen flickered to life, Chloe sprawled out beside her.

At last life could return to normal.

* * * * *

“What do you think?” Chloe asked from behind her, and Victoria had to blink for a moment. She hadn’t even realised that Chloe had gotten up.

Then she turned around and was non-plussed for a completely different reason.

 _Suit_ , was her first vaguely coherent thought, and: _it’s really unfair for Chloe to just spring this upon a girl_ , her second.

Chloe, obnoxious cocky smirk spread across her face, was clearly far too aware of the effect it was having upon Victoria.

Damnit.

Recovering herself, she narrowed her eyes. “I thought you only wore that when you had somewhere to go.”

If anything, the smirk widened. “I only wear it when I’ve gotta reason to,” Chloe corrected her.

“Which would be?”

“Heard you had a thing for me in a suit,” she said as she advanced so she was looming over the back of the couch, leaning over slightly so that her tie was practically slapping Victoria in the face.

Something within Victoria snapped. Well, fine, if that was the way she wanted to play it…

She grabbed the tie and yanked Chloe down, so they were practically face to face.

“You really sure you’re up to this, Price?”

“You really think you can throw anything at me I can’t handle, Chase?” Chloe retorted as best she could, though she sounded somewhat strangled. Was going a tad purple as well.

Oh, yes. The tie.

“If I’d known shutting you up was this simple,” she said, as she fiddled with the knot she’d somehow managed to pull into a peanut. “I’d have considered it years ago. Especially when we’re watching superhero movies.”

“They’re… just… so… implausible…”

She stopped for a moment, glaring at Chloe. “Don’t make me regret undoing this,” she said, before swearing. “Stay there,” she said and bolted for the kitchen.

“Wasn’t… planning… on… it…”

Scissors, scissors, she couldn’t find her damn scissors. Oh well, she thought. This should do.

Chloe’s eyes seemed to widen as Victoria advanced on her with a knife, though it was a little hard to do with the way they were bugging out generally. It took a little sawing, but she managed to cut through Chloe’s tie. 

Chloe promptly took deep, gasping breaths of air. “You’re a menace, woman,” she said when she could speak.

Victoria shuffled, abruptly embarrassed. “Yes, well. Probably a sign, all things considered.”

Chloe squinted up at her. “I’ll say. No idea you could look so hot with a knife in your hand. Maybe I should make you help me with cooking in the future.”

Victoria rolled her eyes. “Very funny.”

Chloe pushed herself up. “Who said I was joking?” she breathed just before she leaned in and kissed Victoria.

And, well…

* * * * *

The beep of the alarm disturbed Victoria from her slumber. For a minute, she couldn’t remember why waking up seemed like such a struggle this morning.

Then the presence of a warm body alongside hers reminded her, and she couldn’t help smiling a little.

Oh yes.

She basked in the remnants the afterglow for a few minutes. Last night had gone… not badly. Not badly at all. She’d had some excellent sex, maybe even justifying Chloe’s cockiness on the subject. She’d managed to get Chloe to actually spend the night in a bed for once. She’d even sliced Chloe out of the shirt of hers using the knife, surprisingly hot despite the tragic sacrifice.

The worries about how this might go inevitably wrong were there, like clouds on the horizon, but she could ignore them for the moment.

She rolled over and grabbed her phone and texted Max.

Victoria: I will destroy you, Max Caulfield!  
Max: You’re texting me the next morning  
Victoria: Gut you and take award winning photos of your carcass  
Max: Good news? (¬‿¬)  
Victoria: …  
Max: \ (•◡•) /  
Victoria: Killing you with my mind right now

“How’s Max?” Chloe sleepily asked from behind her.

“Surprisingly unfazed about her imminent demise.”

Chloe reached over and took her phone off her. “How about you catch up with her later?” she said, then kissed the back of her neck. “Got something else we could be doing now.”

Victoria briefly thought about getting up, preparing for her work day. 

But it could wait a little while. She rolled over and smirked at Chloe. “Big words, Price. Let’s see you back them up.”


End file.
